I am not only new to this forum but new to grilling for more than 4 people. I am located in Tennessee where "dry rub" is king so meat preparation is an art to say the least. Additionally, I am a do or die Titans fan and believe our two win season was directly related to the absence of dry rub ribs on my grill. Having said that, I will try to give a quick history of my experience.

My previous grills have been Weber kettles which produced great meat however, would deteriorate after a year or two of usage. The dampers would warp or break off due to the repeated usage and weather conditions we experience in the south. Ironically, my last one mysteriously had hammer marks on the lid after the loss to the Colts on 12/28/14. My wife of 25 years continues to say I inflicted the wounds to get a new grill but we enthusiasts know that the "Grill Gnomes" attacked my grill while we were asleep. No matter which story you believe; she saw the hurt in my eyes from not having a grill and purchased me a Highland after two years of window shopping. Thank you Grill Gnomes!

After assembling the grill, I found so many mods in your forum but am clueless on what they mean or what the benefit will be with the mods. This weekend I bought RTV to seal the gaps on the grill because that is the only modification I really understood. My questions come with the purpose / advantage of the following upgrades:

1. Convection plate

2. Baffle plate

3. Gaskets

4. Smoke stack box / duct

5. Fire box grate for charcoal.

In closing, please forgive me for not being fluent in big grill terminology. I just want to make my first cookout on draft day a blast for all who attend (about 15 people). Finally, I am trying to work my way up to a shoulder for my favorite holiday on the Fourth! All help is welcomed and eagerly encouraged. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Welcome, glad ya joined us... For your question, ya may start a new thread to get more responses bout your smoker.... I'am a big NFL fan as well... Hope your Titans do well this coming year, I like "The Whis". I've been a Cowboys fan for 35+ yrs... I think we have fans of most teams on here ! Lookin forward to the 2015 season & seeing some of your smokes !

Welcome to the forum Titan! You'll find a lot of great people here who are always happy to help. Big nfl fan here too. Still standing by my bad news Bucs! No need to apologize for not getting all the lingo, we all started there too. You'll pick it up really quick! And there's no better place to research anything about smoking. Be sure to post pics of your smokes and you'll make friends real quick-we just can't get enough of this stuff! Happy smokin', David.

Glad you joined the group. The search bar at the top of any page is your best friend.About anything you wanna know about smoking/grilling/curing/brining/cutting or slicingand the list goes on has probably been posted. Remember to post a QVIEW of your smokes.We are all smoke junkies here and we have to get our fix. If you have questionsPost it and you will probably get 10 replies with 11 different answers. That isbecause their are so many different ways to make great Q...Happy smoken.David

You guys are the greatest! I took your advise and upgraded my grill / smoker....nothing but fun over here! Seeing that we all need pics; I am showing you my pics from my first session. Still working out kinks but more is definitely on the way. Thanks again for your advise and assistance.